{"id":843,"date":"2017-03-08T13:42:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T13:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=843"},"modified":"2017-03-08T13:53:04","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T13:53:04","slug":"its-the-defence-stupid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/its-the-defence-stupid\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s The Defence, Stupid!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over the last couple of weeks I\u2019ve written two blogs about the state of Liverpool\u2019s squad as it currently stands. The first was an exploration of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/liverpools-defensive-unit\/\">the defensive unit as a whole<\/a>, looking at the players individually to see where their strengths and weaknesses are. Then I wrote about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/liverpools-middle-and-attack-who-should-get-to-stick-around\/\">our attack and just how good it is<\/a>. Both of those blogs were about me looking at the players, rather than talking about <strong>why<\/strong> improving them this summer is so important.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Liverpool&#8217;s defence has been consistently awful for the past four years. Surely Klopp will reinforce it this summer. [Bleacher Report] <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash\">#LFC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/OZaqzYhA07\">pic.twitter.com\/OZaqzYhA07<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 LFC Transfer Room (@LFCTransferRoom) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LFCTransferRoom\/status\/836929382170112000\">March 1, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\u201cutf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>As the days have gone by since I wrote those pieces I have realised that it\u2019s also worth exploring the damage not having a strong defence is doing to any potential title challenge. What did the stats look like when J\u00fcrgen Klopp was at Borussia Dortmund? Did they differ significantly in his first two seasons to how they\u2019ve been for us so far? More importantly from our point of view, how much did the Dortmund defence tighten up (or otherwise) the longer that the German was at the Westfalenstadion? I\u2019ve tried to do some research to find out\u2026<\/p>\n<h2>Klopp\u2019s System Is The Key<\/h2>\n<p>A lot of Fenway Sports Group\u2019s critics believe that they chose J\u00fcrgen Klopp as the replacement for Brendan Rodgers because he buys into their concept of developing youth and is, therefore, a \u2018patsy\u2019 for their refusal to spend money. That may well be true, I have simply no idea. What I do know, however, is that there\u2019s a reason that the German prefers to work with young and hungry players rather than established superstars &#8211; his system is the the thing that matters more than anything else.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Sturridge doesn&#8217;t fit Klopp&#8217;s system at all. But neither would Ibrahimovic. Surely accommodating quality players has to come first?<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 James Nelson (@_James_Nelson_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/_James_Nelson_\/status\/836709772665708544\">February 28, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\u201cutf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Young players don\u2019t come with any baggage. They\u2019re happy to buy into what a manager tells them to do, safe in the knowledge that a man who has won two Bundesliga titles and made the final of the Champions League probably knows more than they do. Players need to buy into the manner in which Klopp wants them to play hook, line and sinker or else weaknesses will expose themselves. The tricky thing is that younger players might well do what he wants, but they\u2019re also less experienced and liable to make mistakes.<\/p>\n<p>So why am I talking about the manager\u2019s system? Because in Klopp\u2019s world defending isn\u2019t the job of just the defenders. It is the responsibility of the whole team to do their jobs at all times, closing down players, shutting off passing lanes and harassing players into making mistakes. Do that and the opposition won\u2019t get loads of chances. We\u2019ve seen that at numerous times this season; when this side plays well they really do play well and there\u2019s not much the other side can do to cause problems. Yet a quick look at all of our results over the course of the season so far reveals that we\u2019ve kept just eleven clean sheets in 36 games in all competitions.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-cards=\"hidden\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PaulSenior1\">@PaulSenior1<\/a> 3 at Bournemouth, 2 at Burnley. We needed to score 18 to take 15 points from Sun\/Hull\/Leic\/Pal\/Burn. Chelsea needed 6.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Philip Blundell (@PhilBlundell) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PhilBlundell\/status\/839239993231028225\">March 7, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\u201cutf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>To put that into context, we played two games less in January alone than we\u2019ve managed clean sheets in total all season. No team goes an entire league campaign without conceding goals, but that\u2019s pretty shameful. Weirdly, three of our clean sheets have come against Everton, Spurs and Manchester United, suggested that Klopp\u2019s team are better at stopping the opposition from scoring when they see it as a big game that they need to remain concentrated in. There\u2019s no question that, as my blog about our defence suggested, the personnel within that defence are a problem. But perhaps the system as a whole could do with re-structuring slightly if the players can\u2019t stay focussed for 90 minutes at a time against the lesser lights of the league.<\/p>\n<h2>A Look At The Stats<\/h2>\n<p>Against Crystal Palace, Bournemouth and Sunderland away from home we scored nine goals, yet we took just four points. At Anfield we netted two apiece against West Ham and Swansea but got just one point out of six for our troubles. That\u2019s absurd. A team with hopes of mounting a title challenge can\u2019t need to score more than thirteen goals against such dross in order to walk away with all fifteen points available. For us to score a baker\u2019s dozen against the five of them and take a mere five points has to be troubling for the manager. Add ten points to our current tally and we\u2019re in second place, six points clear of Spurs and just four shy of Chelsea.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Oh, what a bloody surprise. Liverpool concede goal from first proper attack.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 human row (@adtechpeddler) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/adtechpeddler\/status\/838098179820224512\">March 4, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\u201cutf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The big question Klopp needs to ask is whether it\u2019s a systematic issue or a personnel one. The stats would suggest that\u2019s it\u2019s likely to be the latter. In 2013-2014 we conceded an average of 1.3 goals per game. In 2014-2015 we conceded an average of 1.3 goals per game. In 2015-2016 we conceded an average of 1.3 goals per game. So far in In 2016-2017 we\u2019ve conceded an average of 1.3 goals per game. During that time we\u2019ve had two different managers in charge and although they like to play similar systems they\u2019re hardly identical. Yet during that time there have been constants in playing staff, including Simon Mignolet in goal, Dejan Lovren at centre-back (from 2014-2015 onwards) and Nathaniel Clyne at right-back (from 2015-2016).<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_173\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-173\" class=\"size-large wp-image-173\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Dejan-Lovren-of-Liverpool_EUO_mooinblack-shutterstock-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Dejan-Lovren-of-Liverpool_EUO_mooinblack-shutterstock-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Dejan-Lovren-of-Liverpool_EUO_mooinblack-shutterstock-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Dejan-Lovren-of-Liverpool_EUO_mooinblack-shutterstock.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-173\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">mooinblack \/ shutterstock.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p>As I said before, you don\u2019t go a season without conceding a goal. Yet we\u2019re effectively starting matches one-nil down. If the midfield and attack isn\u2019t functioning properly then we\u2019re liable to lose more matches than we win. Obviously stats don\u2019t quite work like that, they average themselves out over the course of the season. But it\u2019s just as bad to say that if we play five matches and keep four clean sheets then we concede five goals in the fifth game. Whichever way you break it down doesn\u2019t look good. It\u2019s even more frustrating that we concede so many goals to weaker opponents. So far this season we\u2019ve conceded 19 goals in 11 games against the bottom seven teams, losing four of them.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Most <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash\">#LFC<\/a> goals conceded after 26 games since 1962:<br \/>\n41 1964\/65<br \/>\n37 1992\/93<br \/>\n36 2015\/16<br \/>\n34 2012\/13<br \/>\n33 2016\/17<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dan Kennett (@DanKennett) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DanKennett\/status\/836339732187656193\">February 27, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\u201cutf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>So how does all of that compare to his time at Dortmund? The year before he arrived at the Westfalenstadion BvB conceded an average of 1.8 goals per game in the league. In his first season in charge this dropped down to 1.08 but in season two it crept up to 1.2. In his third season, and the the one they won the league for the first time, this dropped to a very impressive 0.6 goals per game. They defended the title the following season with a goals per game average of 0.7, but in his fifth season they came second by 25 points as their gpg average shot back up to 1.2. They were 19 points short in season six, conceding 1.1 goals per game. We all know of the troubles he endured during his final season, but that was more because his attack stopped firing as his defence once again conceded an average of 1.2 goals per game.<\/p>\n<h2>What Changed?<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s an easy enough question to ask but is perhaps slightly harder to answer. Klopp signed \u0141ukasz Piszczek is the summer of 2010, playing him in a defensive position throughout that season. He also bought Shinji Kagawa and played him in midfield for 28 games in all competitions. Ant\u00f4nio da Silva also arrived and played 27 times in the middle of the park. So was it all about the signings? Possibly. More likely, though is the idea that his players had had two seasons of getting used to his system that he\u2019d also tweaked in order to take advantage of their strengths and mitigate their weaknesses. Combining that with the addition of specific players was enough to bring home the title.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Klopp needs to spend the entire Liverpool transfer budget on defenders..<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 AYOOLA (@ayaj_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ayaj_\/status\/836326918626607105\">February 27, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\u201cutf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The following summer he lost Nuri \u015eahin to Real Madrid but didn\u2019t rest on his laurels. Instead he brought in Ivan Peri\u0161i\u0107 and \u0130lkay G\u00fcndo\u011fan playing them 24 times apiece in the Bundesliga. He was now working with a squad that understood his methods and had supplemented his players with others, so it\u2019s little surprise that they went on to retain the title. The team worked just as hard defensively, conceding a mere 0.1 goal per game more than they did the previous season. Will he be able to get his Liverpool team working in the same manner moving forward?<\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>J\u00fcrgen Klopp will know that keeping things tight at the back was crucial for his two Bundesliga title wins. The problem he\u2019s currently got at Liverpool is that we don\u2019t have a player delivering 16 goals as Lucas Barrios did in 2010-2011 or a 22 goal a season man as Robert Lewandowski was the following year. We\u2019ve got a front-line that knows how to cause defences problems when working together, but it means sacrificing defensive solidity to allow them to swarm forward. That, combined with personnel in the back four who aren\u2019t good enough is where our problems lie.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-cards=\"hidden\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">IT&#8217;S THE DEFENCE, STUPID<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dan Kennett (@DanKennett) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DanKennett\/status\/836338135038627840\">February 27, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\u201cutf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>I wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see Liverpool move for a new goalkeeper, centre-back and box-to-box midfielder this summer. Klopp will have seen the weaknesses at the back and know that he has to take care of them if we\u2019ve got any hope of competing for the title. The quality of those players will depend entirely on whether or not we\u2019re able to qualify for the Champions League. He\u2019ll then have to balance the demands of that competition with the Premier League. Can he do it? He\u2019s done it before. The important thing is that he remembers why it worked last time. In the words of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DanKennett\">Dan Kennett, who inspired the title of this piece<\/a>, it\u2019s the defence, stupid!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the last couple of weeks I\u2019ve written two blogs about the state of Liverpool\u2019s squad as it currently stands. The first was an exploration of the defensive unit as a whole, looking at the players individually to see where their strengths and weaknesses are. Then I wrote about our attack and just how good it is. Both of those blogs were about me looking at the players, rather than talking about why improving them this summer is so important. Liverpool&#8217;s defence has been consistently awful for the past four years. Surely Klopp will reinforce it this summer. [Bleacher Report] [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":845,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843\/revisions\/845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}